For a wonder, no one else was watching the little animals. When they had first been placed there, a small crowd had gathered daily to look at their antics; but the Fordham youth had grown accustomed to them now, and Peter was the only one who stopped. Presently, however, another boy sauntered up, and stood a little beyond Peter. He was very shabbily dressed, and Peter, who was observant, noticed that he looked hungry. Instead of watching the squirrels, he found himself watching the boy, who was quite unconscious of it. Presently the boy put out his hand and quietly abstracted an apple from a barrel that was standing there, and dropped it into his pocket. In a moment he repeated the operation. Then he moved slightly, and his gaze encountered Peter’s. Instantly his fist doubled up. “If you’re going to tell on me, I’ll knock you down,” he said. “I’m not going to tell on you, though I’m not afraid of your knocking me down,” returned Peter. “But what are you doing it for? It seems to me it’s a pretty mean thing to do.” “I guess you’d do it if you was as hungry as me,” said the boy. “I mean to take another—there ain’t nobody looking.” “Oh, I say, don’t!” said Peter. “Haven’t you got any money to pay for them?” “Money! I ain’t seen a nickel for a week, and I ain’t had nothin’ to eat since yesterday morning.” Peter put his hand in his pocket. “I haven’t got much myself,” said he, pulling out a dime, a five-cent piece, and some pennies, which he placed in the palm of one hand while he searched the depths of his pockets with the other. “We haven’t got much money ourselves, nowadays, but we’ve got enough to eat. It must be pretty bad to be hungry. I’ve got to keep five cents to get back to Fordham Falls, but I’d be glad if you’d take the rest, and I wish you’d go in and pay for those apples.” He placed the money upon the top of the barrel which held the squirrels’ cage, and walked quickly away. The boy looked after him in astonishment. Then he took the money and went into the store with the apples which he had appropriated in his hand. He paid for them, and also for a loaf of bread, and then he hurried up the main street in the direction in which Peter had walked. He could not overtake him, however, and when he had reached the less thickly populated part of the town and still saw nothing of his benefactor, he turned aside into a narrow road, and sitting down, he began to devour the bread and apples, from time to time looking, as he ate, at the eight cents which remained of what Peter had given him. He felt like a millionaire. In the meantime Peter went to the florist’s, and fortunately finding him at home, proceeded to question him closely on the subject for which he had come. After spending a half-hour in interesting conversation he left the place, and as it was yet too early for his car back to Fordham Falls, he took a roundabout way for the sake of using up his superfluous time.